Recent murders and shootings have proved that the eight years of the Duffy-Richards administration has NOT changed the perception that Rochester is a dangerous city!

It has been an unusually rainy June for Rochester.

While it has been good for the flowers, it has been making my grass grow way too damned fast, necessitating more frequent mowing, when the rain lets up.

But, it is business as usual in our fair city for other events.

Sort of.

Just past midnight, in the early hours of Monday, June 24, a double homicide occurred.

They were Rochester’s 14th and 15th homicides for the year 2013.

Occurring outside of a club on Central Avenue, it got a little bit of news coverage for the day. But only just a little.

That was because it occurred where Rochester’s crimes, violence and murder are supposed to happen: the Fatal Crescent.

The Fatal Crescent is that swathe of poverty that rings the Inner Loop, curving into the Bulls Head neighborhood.

A less than “politically correct” way to describe the Fatal Crescent is the ghetto.

Thursday, there was a shoot out between the police and the chief suspect in those murders, a rapper known as “Irak da Prince.”

This has been receiving a lot of news coverage. A police officer was wounded. The suspect is in guarded condition at the hospital. An innocent bystander is also in guarded condition at the hospital.

The shoot out did NOT occur where such incidents are supposed to happen. It occurred in a relatively neat and safe neighborhood on Rochester’s Northeast side, bordering on the Town of Irondequoit.

The innocent bystander was from the Town of Henrietta.

And early this morning, yet another man was shot on a porch on Coleman Terrace on the East Side…where such incidents are supposed to occur.

Despite press conferences where Rochester Police Chief Sheppard occasionally cracked a smile describing the improving condition of the wounded police officer, and the current mayor’s tight lipped statement that the shoot out ”had to be done,” neither man bothered to mention the innocent bystander who was injured and in guarded condition at Strong Memorial Hospital.

Probably because this incident is an embarrassment to both of them.

Despite their claims to the contrary, eight years of the Duffy-Richards administration has NOT changed the perception that Rochester is a dangerous city to be in. The fact that a suburban resident was caught in the cross-fire between the police and the suspect merely underscores this perception. Which is why many suburbanites fear visiting our city, which is why so many residents continue to flee Rochester for what they perceive are the “safer” suburbs.

The disgusting performance of our school system also provides many residents an excellent reason to move to the “better” suburban schools, but that is a different story.

What is clear is that there are no really “safe” neighborhoods in Rochester anymore, despite the pious cant offered by Citygov. And, despite the police chief’s claim that most of our crimes ( and murders ) are “gang related,” lately there have been a lot of innocent bystanders injured during the course of these events.

And the news media has a field day when these incidents occur in places where they are not supposed to.

Those of us who live in Rochester, in “neighborhoods in transition,” know who the criminals are. We report them to the appropriate officials regularly, only to see them roam the streets at will, because we are told there is little that the police can do about them. We are told not to put ourselves at risk by exposing ourselves to danger.

Which means that we are to live with a “siege mentality,” and turn our homes into fortresses, and venture out only to purchase food and go to work.

That’s bad enough.

What is worse are the families and friends of these criminals who protect them, who allow them hang around their stores and businesses, who cover for them while these thugs commit their crimes and drive more people away from their businesses.

Perhaps they don’t understand “cause and effect.”

Whether that is a result of fear of retribution, misplaced family affection or the disgusting “Don’t Snitch” code of thug culture is anyone’s guess.

Many of Rochester’s residents DO fight the good fight, wringing their hands and saying “This can’t continue” when given glib excuses as to why nothing can be done.

So it will continue, at least until people realize that it is in their best interest to rid our streets of such trash.

Or until they throw in the towel and move out of Rochester.

Which is what the thugs want: to be allowed to practice their trade unimpeded by people who want to clean up Rochester.

To prevent that, we need to continue to complain to the police about these thugs who roam our streets, no matter how hopeless it may sometimes seem.

We also need to have leaders in office who will bite the bullet and come down hard on criminals, putting their political careers on the line to do so.

That, too, seems sometimes hopeless.

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Rich Gardner has been writing about the history, culture and waterways of Upstate New York for years. His articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, and one book, Learning to Walk. He is an alumnus of Brighton High School and SUNY Geneseo. He operates Upstate Resume & Writing Service in Brighton and recently moved to Corn Hill, where he is already involved in community projects. "I enjoy the 'Aha!' moments of learning new things, conceptual and literal. City living is a great teacher."

Ken Warner grew up in Brockport and first experienced Rochester as a messenger boy for a law firm in Midtown Tower. He recently moved downtown into a loft on the 13th floor of the Temple Building with a view of the Liberty Poll and works in the Powers Building overlooking Rochester’s four corners as Executive Director for UNICON, an organization devoted to bringing economic development to the community. He hopes to use his Rochester Blog to share his observations from these unique views of downtown.